Very early in the morning, the rooster sends out his call and the chickens begin
to wake. They have been sleeping on their roosts, holding with their toes. Wake
up chickens. It is daytime. The chickens jump and fly from their roosts. First
the rooster and then the hen. They are white leghorn chickens wide awake now and
waiting for breakfast. Here comes farmer Brown bringing grain for the chicken. He
opens the door and scatters the grain about. The hens begin to pick it up at
once, but the rooster calls the hen to share his grain. The rooster is larger
than the hen. He has a big red comb on his head and long curly tail feathers.
Chickens pick up the grain with their sharp beaks. Chickens have no teeth, so
they swallow their food whole. But chickens also eat gravel and grit, which help
grind up the hard food in their She takes a beak full of water and lifts up her
head so the water can run down her throat. The chickens eyes are on the sides of
its head. This hen looks at us first with one eye and then with the other. In the
chicken brooder house nearby are kept the baby chicks only two days old and hear
them peep. The baby chicks keep dry and warm here near a stove
covered with a broad metal hood.
Little chicks are always hungry, so the farmer always keeps chick food in their
food trough. Shall we see
where little chicks come from?
The farmer's boy carefully gathers the freshly laid eggs from the nests where the
hens laid them. Later farmer Brown puts the eggs
into a chest of drawers called an incubator. Inside the
incubator the eggs are kept warm. A week goes by every
day the eggs are turned. The farmer now takes an egg to see whether a chick is
beginning to form in it. Inside the week old egg at the top we see a black speck
which is the little chicks eye. And now nearly three weeks after this egg was put
into the incubator the tiny chick is almost ready to come out.
The chick begins pecking a hole through the shell with its sharp beak.
Now the shell is well broken and the baby chick rests. The shell is almost
ready to break apart. Another rest before breaking through. See the beak the
chick uses in pecking its way out. Nearly out at last but still
very weak. It's hard work getting all the way out. Some of these other chicks
have been out of their shells for a while and they run about in the incubator
drawer. This chick took all day to peck its way out of the shell. A
day more in the warm incubator for the chicks to dry out and farmer Brown is
ready to take them across to the
inside the brooder house are the baby chicks covered with fuzzy yellow down.
These chicks are a week old. White wing feathers are growing in place of the down
and these have been out of the eggs for two weeks. Their tail feathers
are
chickens and almost grown up. Some farmers let a hen sit
on eggs until they hatch into chicks. Mother hen keeps her baby chicks warm
out from under mother's wing.
And now the mother and her chicks come off the nest to eat. These are Plymouth
rock chickens. Farmer Brown keeps ducks on his poultry farm
too. Hidden in the middle of this bush is a mother duck sitting
on her eggs. Can you see her? Off for something to eat. Her eggs are
well hidden while she is away. Nearby in another bush is a mother duck and her
newly hatched ducklings. She leads her ducklings out of their nest. Two of the
eggs haven't hatched. Mother duck calls to her babies to follow her into the
water. The bank is high and the ducklings are small but they clamber down as fast
as their weak little legs will carry them. They don't need any lessons in
swimming but they still swim close to their mother. A duck
has webbed feet which make good paddles for swimming.
These ducklings have no feathers yet only soft fluffy down.
Mother duck scoops up food from the water in her broad flat bill.
The ducklings too dive down for bits of food from the bottom of the pond. Here
they find seeds and plants and tiny bugs to eat. Inside their flat bills are
ridges which hold the food back while the water strains out. Here we see the
ridges along the edges of a duck's bill. Who would know that this was the
ducklings first day in the water but until their feathers grow they must not stay
in long. They are glad to go out now and waddle after their
mother through the grassy meadow.
This duckling will get lost but he hears his mother call and runs to catch up
with her. Now for a feast. After mother duck makes sure all her babies are
here she scoops up the grain with her broad bill although it's better for feeding
in water. Her webbed feet too are better for swimming than for walking. Time for
mother duck and her ducklings to waddle back to their nest. So following closely
behind their mother they go back to their well-hidden nest in the bush again.
On another nest in Farmer Brown's barn is a family of geese. Father Gander has
been watching over them ever since they first hatched. Now for something to eat.
Baby goslings are bigger than ducklings and baby chicks. These goslings are two
weeks old and they know their way about. Over the garden path
they go to the green
meadow. Father Gander and mother goose watch as the goslings have their dinner.
They peck the fresh green blades of grass although already two weeks old the
goslings feathers have not yet begun to grow. Geese
have longer necks than ducks.
Gander hears something. He hears a turkey gobbler
who flew over the fence to the turkey yard. Only a small
flock of turkey cocks and hens are kept on this farm.
The Farmer Brown keeps a large flock of younger turkeys and feeds them well so
they will grow large for Thanksgiving dinners.
These baby turkeys just out of their eggshells in the incubator are being
fattened for Christmas dinners. It is early evening and the chickens
have already gone to roost. Farmer Brown closes the chicken house door.
The gander watches over his family on their nest in the barn. Mother Duck and her
ducklings are safe in their nest well hidden in the bush. The turkeys are the
very last to go to sleep. When it gets dark they go to their roosts in the
branches of trees and all is quiet on the farm for the night.